Waterline Installation and Servicing

Interviewer: You said you also work on waterlines?

Waterline Installation Is Necessary in New Developments

David Munoz: I work on waterlines. I do installation of waterlines if they need it. For an example, I can do fire lines in a new development if they were putting a new system and they wanted a new fire line to the system for the hydrants and the building. We do that as well. That’s part of our work.

We also do water main repairs. Water main repairs, we normally do it more for the private ends because there’s really nobody out there to assist them other than plumbers.

Waterline Main Breaks Can Cause Contaminants in Drinking Water

Like I told you earlier, we’re members of the American Water Works Association, and we’re also certified through NAPDA for fire lines. The domestic water is very critical. This is because if you have an apartment complex and you have a main break below ground—before you know it there’s mud in that line.

If you don’t disinfect it before you put that line together or flush that line and make sure that everything comes out of that line before you put it up in service, then you have contaminants in that line and people can drink it.

It’s very critical you do your flushing and you know what you’re doing.

Waterline Maintenance

Interviewer: What are the most common calls you get for waterline maintenance? When there’s a main break?

David Munoz: Normally when there’s a main break. That’s when we’ll get called to do a repair on the break. Waterline maintenance is valve maintenance really as well. We will go out there and make sure that all the valves are upgraded. We make sure they’re all clean where you can put a key on them, so you can operate them at the time you need to shut them down. You record them.

What I mean by recording is we have a form that documents the work to and the location of those valves. We’ll know exactly where there are. This is important because some communities will usually hire asphalt companies to come and renew their parking lot sometimes.

If you don’t have any location ties to those valves, they can be damaged during work over them and you’ll never find them in emergency situations. One of those things we do is we take measurement of where they’re located. We document that and we actually give a copy of the assessment to the property owner.